A Georgia native, I am the son of a Methodist minister. I graduated from FrankIin County High School (1988) and then went to Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. I spent the summer of 1989 working on an archaeology site in Ashkelon, Israel. While at Wofford I was the first director of their new student volunteer program. In May 1991 I received a BA with Religion as my major.
I began studying at Duke Divinity School in the Fall of 1991. The following summer I was awarded a three-week study grant to visit Syria, Jordan, Israel, and Greece. For the 1992-93 academic year, I studied theology at the University of Bonn, Germany. I returned to Duke in the fall of 1993. I completed my Master of Divinity in 1995 and then completed a Master of Theology in the field of preaching and theology in 1996.
Kristen and I married in 1995. Kristen is a native of Texas. She received a BA from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas with a major in religion. In 1996, Kristen earned a Master of Sacred Theology from Duke Divinity School. She has worked as a juvenile probation officer, as executive director of a sexual assault center, as Director of the Georgia Brain and Spinal Injury Trust Fund, and currently as a writer and workshop leader for Upper Room Ministries. Kristen has authored four books and we have coauthored one book.
Since finishing seminary, I have served as a pastor in North Carolina and Georgia. For four years I was a chaplain at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. I became pastor of St. James in the summer of 2018.
Our son Matthew is a student at Carleton College in Minnesota. He loves soccer, playing electric guitar, art, reading, golf, and swimming. In addition to writing and teaching, Kristen loves hiking, reading, music, organizing and decorating.
I love preaching and leading worship, golf, reading, cooking, and hiking. I am the author of Because of This I Rejoice and Good News of Great Joy.
